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Brittany’s top classical music venue is the Opéra de Rennes (Pl. de l’Hôtel de Ville | 35000 | 02–99–78–48–78 | www.opera-rennes.fr). All kinds of performances are staged at the Théâtre National de Bretagne (10 av. Louis-Barthou | 35000 | 02–99–35–27–74). The famous annual international rock-and-roll festival, Les Transmusicales (02–99–31–12–10 for information), happens the second week of December in bars around town and at the Théâtre National de Bretagne.

The first week of July sees Les Tombées de la Nuit (02–99–32–56–56 | www.lestombeesdelanuit.com), the “Nightfalls” Festival, featuring crowds, Celtic music, dance, and theater performances staged in old historic streets and churches around town.

SHOPPING IN RENNES

A lively market is held on Place des Lices on Saturday morning.

COMBOURG

40 km (25 mi) north of Rennes via D137 and D795.

The pretty lakeside village of Combourg is dominated by the boyhood home of Romantic writer Viscount René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848), the thick-wall, four-tower Château de Combourg (Cat’s Tower) that is perhaps Brittany’s most celebrated castle. Topped with “witches’ cap” towers that the poet likened to Gothic crowns, the castle dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries. Here, quartered in the tower called “La Tour du Chat,” accompanied by roosting birds, a sinister quiet, and the ghost of a wooden-legged Comte de Combourg—whose false leg would reputedly get up and walk by itself—the young René succumbed to the château’s moody spell and, in turn, became a leading light of Romanticism. His novel Atala and René, about a tragic love affair between a French soldier and a Native American maiden, was an international sensation in the mid-19th century, while his multivolume History of Christianity was required reading for half of Europe. The château grounds—ponds, woods, and cattle-strewn meadowland—are suitably mournful and can seem positively desolate when viewed under leaden skies. Its melancholy is best captured in Chateaubriand’s famous Mémoires d’outre-tombe (Memories from Beyond the Tomb). Inside you can view neo-Gothic salons, the Chateaubriand archives, and the writer’s severe bedroom up in the “Cat’s Tower.” | 02–99–73–22–95 | www.combourg.net | €7, park only €2.50 | Château (guided tours only) Apr.–Oct., Sun.–Fri. 2–5:30; park Apr.–Oct., Sun.–Fri. 9–noon and 2–6.

DINAN

35 km (20 mi) west of Combourg.

Getting Here and Around

If you come to Dinan by train, you’ll arrive in the Art Deco train station (Place du 11-Novembre-1918). Trains from Rennes take just over an hour and involve a change at Dol (€16). CAT buses transfer from the train stations in St-Malo (1 hr) and Dinard (45 mins). TAE buses also connect Dinan to Rennes (1¼ hrs) several times a day. No buses run on Sunday.

Visitor Information

Dinan Tourist Office.

| 9 rue du Château | 22100 | 02–96–87–69–76 | www.dinan-tourisme.com.

EXPLORING DINAN

During the frequent wars that devastated other cities in the Middle Ages, the merchants who ruled Dinan got rich selling stuff to whichever camp had the upper hand, well aware that loyalty to any side, be it the French, the English, or the Breton, would eventually lead to the destruction of their homes. The strategy worked: today Dinan is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Brittany. Although there’s no escaping the crowds here in summer, in the off-season or early morning Dinan feels like a time-warped medieval playground.

Like Montmuran, Dinan has close links with warrior-hero Bertrand du Guesclin, who won a famous victory here in 1359 and promptly married a local girl, Tiphaine Raguenel. When he died in the siege of Châteauneuf-de-Randon in Auvergne (central France) in 1380, his body was dispatched home to Dinan. Owing to the great man’s popularity, only his heart completed the journey (it rests in the basilica); the rest of him was confiscated by devoted followers along the way.

Along Place des Merciers, Rue de l’Apport, and Rue de la Poissonnerie, take note of the splendid gabled wooden houses. Rue du Jerzual, which leads down to